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Hey all!
I’ve popped in here periodically for awhile but have just now registered and started posting. I’m an old Subaru hack from WAY back and have realized that I should be involved here, not for what I can learn, but for what I can contribute. I’ve been into Subys since ‘79, when I went to work for my high school auto mechanics teacher during the summer in Indianapolis. He was a former Sub dealer tech and had quite a little business on the side working on roos. I was a down and devout Ford man at the time but I was definitely intrigued by this flat, all aluminum engine. Even though it was not NEARLY enough displacement for me at the time… it was obviously a superior design. The first car we had to work on was a 74-75 sedan that needed the engine pulled to do head gaskets, and I was thinking, we’re gonna be here all day. 20 minutes later, the engine was on a stand and we were pulling the heads! I have been hooked ever since!! We were test driving that car less than 3 hours later, and yes, we reshimmed the wet liners… if anybody remembers those. Since then I’ve owned many great Scoobydoos, of note: my first was a ‘73 orange sport coupe I got from the junkyard and slapped a 1600 in. That thing had these awesome “gator belly”seats… sure wish I’d kept that one! ‘82 GL 4x4 D/R wagon, what a great car!!! I couldn’t wait for sunset to fire up that dashboard… and I still have the passing light. In ‘89 I transplanted an EA82 turbo into an ‘86 4x4 D/R hatch… just a re-drill on the flywheel, a little hammer work on the frame-rail, and a lot of extra wires… easy! That was a bad-rump roast car with the front axle shafts removed, Peugeot 15” wheels and a brake spring on the wastegate (12 psi). Then, around the turn of the century (I’ve always wanted to say that), in need of a truck and my Brat was too rusty to be trusty. I sat wondering what I could put together that would last more than a few years in the salt belt. I had a pile of heavily galvanized steel from a power substation I helped take down, and a wrecked ‘91 Legacy mail car that someone had given me. So I pulled out the welder and the big drill, and made a frame off the legacy dimensions. I didn’t have any good Suby front clips to use for a cab, so I cut the front off my dad’s old Civic, slapped a piece of plywood on the back, treated decking for a bed, and Frankentruck was born! Aptly named because all the parts were salvaged from the boneyard or given to me. I literally had $40.00 in it at first which was for brake lines and a plexiglass rear window. It now has over 305k miles and still going strong. Other than oil, plugs, brakes and belts, I replaced the clutch once (with a good used one), cam belt idler pulleys and front axles at 250k, and 1 injector coil went bad at 300k. Still on the same alternator, starter, water pump, fuel pump, (I’m a little nervous about that) and original Subaru fuel filter! Yeah, I know, that’s really being cheap, but if it aint broke… :brow:think about it, as a filter collects particles, the filtering actually gets better up to the point where it cant pass enough fuel anymore and then you know it’s time to change it. The factory fuel injection filters are made with very fine stainless steel mesh so you don’t have to worry about paper elements getting old and disintegrating. And I’m leery about the aftermarket or even SOA filters being of comparable quality. Any car I’ve had with the factory FI filter, I have left on and never had to replace. I did have one finally stop up on me with my latest project (other than normal circumstances), but I just backflushed it. More about that one later… don’t want to be a windbag. I was a Subaru dealership tech during the 80’s and 90’s and some of that experience and information is still in my brain somewhere if anyone wants to pick it I will be more than happy to help. Glad to be a part of this cool community!! Wish we had this 20 years ago... wouldn't have felt like such a weirdo

Thanks xbeerd and I75eya , Frankentruck has served me well! IMHO the 89-94 Legacy platform is the "Maytag" of the automotive world, hands down. Some are more exciting, exotic, powerful, more potential, etc. But for solid no muss, no fuss, drive it around the world on the coastlines... you can't go wrong!!

Welcome to usmb from another new user! Naturally I'm going to have to ask to see more pics of your "truck" looks awesome. Also out of curiosity is it hard to get a custom vehicle like that licensed? What is it called on your registration lol

Welcome to usmb from another new user! Naturally I'm going to have to ask to see more pics of your "truck" looks awesome. Also out of curiosity is it hard to get a custom vehicle like that licensed? What is it called on your registration lol

Licensed as an 87 Honda, cause that's the only part with a VIN, but kept getting pulled over back in Indiana because it wasn't a truck plate. Last cop said "Son, it's legal but you need to get the title changed or you're gonna KEEP getting pulled over". So, I had to get an affidavit signed at the state police post stating that yes, it was a truck now, then also asked them about bumper height law while I was there. They told me Indiana law states the bumpers should remain similar to, and proportional in height "as provided by the manufacturer". So I, being the manufacturer of this vehicle, was free to make the bumpers any way I chose! Well, while working up north, I had a Chicago cop pull me over, and after explaining that little known loophole of the law, he got in my FACE and said if I ever showed up in his neighborhood again without bumpers and mudflaps, I was getting a ticket! My work in the area finished up soon after that, so I never complied. BTW, xbeerd, while I was in that area, I had a BLAST in Milwaukee!! There were FIVE brewpubs within walking distance of my hotel room downtown! And then there was Summerfest... with ALL those bands... and ALL those girls dancing and playing in the giant fountain cause it was so hot... and the water was so cold... :slobber: :slobber: :slobber:

Edited by Subaru Scott, 26 November 2012 - 03:22 AM.slobbers needed to be in pairs

Licensed as an 87 Honda, cause that's the only part with a VIN, but kept getting pulled over back in Indiana because it wasn't a truck plate. Last cop said "Son, it's legal but you need to get the title changed or you're gonna KEEP getting pulled over". So, I had to get an affidavit signed at the state police post stating that yes, it was a truck now, then also asked them about bumper height law while I was there. They told me Indiana law states the bumpers should remain similar to, and proportional in height "as provided by the manufacturer". So I, being the manufacturer of this vehicle, was free to make the bumpers any way I chose! Well, while working up north, I had a Chicago cop pull me over, and after explaining that little known loophole of the law, he got in my FACE and said if I ever showed up in his neighborhood again without bumpers and mudflaps, I was getting a ticket! My work in the area finished up soon after that, so I never complied. BTW, xbeerd, while I was in that area, I had a BLAST in Milwaukee!! There were FIVE brewpubs within walking distance of my hotel room downtown! And then there was Summerfest... with ALL those bands... and ALL those girls dancing and playing in the giant fountain cause it was so hot... and the water was so cold... :slobber: :slobber: :slobber:

you were in milwaukee?? when? what hotel did you stay at? i work in the Hyatt Regency hotel downtown Milwaukee

you were in milwaukee?? when? what hotel did you stay at? i work in the Hyatt Regency hotel downtown Milwaukee

02-03, stayed at Best Western. Although they were all excellent, my favorite Brewpub was the Milwaukee Ale House, in the old hula-hoop factory, still have the tshirt "Ale's what cures ya". They had this rockin seafood pot pie, crab, shrimp, whitefish, and veggies in a full size pie crust, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm... I could eat a whole one... but it was hard to walk back to the hotel

Well, I had some time on my hands recently so I decided to make the plunge and replace the cab on Frankentruck. The ol Civic was getting pretty rusty and well... never was very comfy to begin with . I had originally planned on building my own cool all-fiberglass body from scratch until I found out how much I would have to lay out in raw materials alone for fiberglass and resin, not to mention building door and window frames, glass, controls, gauges, etc. Even designing it around donor pieces, with all the fab and finish time that would be involved, it would be way easier and cheaper to just... cut the front off an old XT and slap that on there!

Voila! Of course, as you can see, I didn't cut it off. I couldn't decide exactly how as I wanted to make it an extended cab, so to speak, and wasn't sure how to finish the back off just yet... so I just put the whole body on and my girlfriend sez "It's cuuute! Don't cut it off!" And I have to admit, for once, she's right So I guess for now it'll be Frankencar.

OK, finally rounded up some pics of my other project,this is the Lima Bean:

She is a 1971 Combo Cruiser houseboat, designed to be used as a camper while on the trailer, and a boat. Originally equipped with a 140 hp GM 4 cyl, I replaced that with:

What else?!?... EJ22 Mated to the original OMC electric shift outdrive, it performs very well and is, of course, smoooooth and quiet. The exhaust for now is just regular pipe heat wrapped and run over the transom, but I am building a stainless, water jacketed system to run out the drive. It is also, of course, fresh water cooled through a heat exchanger to keep the saltwater from eating it like a snack! Still SO much work to be done and progress is slow because this is also my home... yes, I have been living aboard for over 5 years now and would have done so many years earlier if I'd only known... Tis the pirates life fer me

sweet man! love the boat/camper, even better runnin a ej22, whats with that coolant res on the side?

That's an old copper tank I picked up at a boat salvage store, serves as a fill point and expansion tank for the coolant before the heat exchanger. I've been toying with the idea of installing a "keel cooler" instead of this system, which is basically a copper pipe that runs down the side of the keel on the bottom of the boat, eliminating the need for a separate pump to supply the heat exchanger. Of course then you have to worry about running that aground on rocks or coral... not that I"m planning to... :-\

I really like the houseboat, it has great looks. And it's pretty cool that it can double as a camper. It even looks a lot like an old airstream camper. It's awesome. Have you taken it out on the water yet? Looks like it would be a lot of fun. I'd love to float down a river with it =)

From what I can find, they're pretty rare. I can barely find any information about them, except for a 70's Popular Science magazine article. Where did you find yours?

Yes indeed, very rare! One of only three, maybe four known to still exist, and one of two that actually runs Very little online about them but it was actually featured in Life magazine 1970. I bought her in a Boat Angel auction on ebay without knowing the first thing about her... just thought she was cool looking! Promised myself I wasn't going to bid over $500 and then late, late that night after much wine, won her for twice that much. Which I feel was well worth that now, even though I had to gut her to the bare hull and rebuild everything. She had been sitting behind the original owners garage in Ft. Lauderdale for 25 years and had developed her own ecosystem inside, complete with plants, animals, and some 70's furniture. Still lots of interior work to be done as well as the jacketed exhaust and an engine cover aaaand lots of other little things, but we regularly cruise the 250 miles of Cape Corals canal system and the Pine island sound around Sanibel and Captiva where she draws a crowd wherever we go!